Tennessee Commercial Collection Agency Services
What Tennessee law gives a business creditor, the deadlines that quietly kill claims, and how C2C Resources collects Tennessee accounts.
Where we are: C2C Resources is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with a second office in Metairie, Louisiana.
Key takeaways
- Tennessee gives you six years to sue on a written contract (T.C.A. 28-3-109(a)(3)), but a sale of goods gets only four years (T.C.A. 47-2-725). Suppliers should plan on four.
- Tennessee does not set a service charge for you. Put any service charge in your written credit agreement, whether your invoices are due upon receipt or on terms like net 30.
- If you have a signed agreement that allows for collection costs or collection agency fees, those charges may be included in the amount sought during collection. If legal action becomes necessary, recoverable fees and costs are determined under applicable Tennessee law and are ultimately subject to the court.
- Tennessee licenses collection services, commercial ones included. C2C Resources holds a Tennessee Collection Service Agency license, license 495.
- Tennessee has no separate small claims court. General Sessions hears civil claims up to $25,000; a 2026 bill to raise that to $50,000 did not pass.
- Suppliers and subcontractors: serve a notice of nonpayment within 90 days of the end of each month you furnished, and serve and record the notice of lien within 90 days of completion of the project.
What's inside
How long do you have to collect a Tennessee business debt?
Six years on a written contract (T.C.A. 28-3-109(a)(3)) and four years on a contract for the sale of goods (T.C.A. 47-2-725). Miss the window and the debt is still owed, but no Tennessee court will enforce it.
Most Tennessee guides stop at six years, and that is the number that catches suppliers out. Tennessee adopted the Uniform Commercial Code's separate limitation period for sales of goods as T.C.A. 47-2-725, and Tennessee courts apply it instead of the six year contract statute when goods are the heart of the deal. If you sell products on account, your clock is four years from the breach, not six.
| What you have | Time to file suit | Tennessee statute |
|---|---|---|
| Goods sold and delivered, with or without a signed supply agreement | 4 years | 47-2-725 |
| Written contract for services | 6 years | 28-3-109(a)(3) |
| A judgment you already hold | 10 years, renewable | 28-3-110 |
Where a deal mixes goods and services, Tennessee courts look at what the contract was mainly about. A supply order with delivery thrown in is a goods contract. An installation job where the materials are incidental may not be. When in doubt, assume the shorter deadline.
None of this means you should wait. Recovery falls hard as an account ages, which is why we ask clients to place at 90 to 120 days.
Can you charge interest on a past due invoice in Tennessee?
Yes, if your written agreement provides for it. Tennessee has no statute that adds a service charge to a business invoice for you, so whether your invoices are due upon receipt or on terms like net 30, put the charge in your credit application or terms of sale.
Some states let a seller add a monthly service charge to a past due commercial account with nothing in writing. Tennessee is not one of them. If your paperwork says nothing about a service charge, that is worth fixing before the next customer signs.
Once a claim moves toward court, two other rates matter. Without a contract rate, a Tennessee court may award prejudgment interest as a matter of fairness, at its discretion and capped at 10 percent a year (T.C.A. 47-14-123). After judgment, interest runs at a rate the courts reset every six months (T.C.A. 47-14-121), so any guide quoting a single judgment rate is already dated.
Does a collection agency need a license in Tennessee?
Yes. Tennessee requires a collection service license from the Collection Service Board in the Department of Commerce and Insurance, and its exemptions do not include commercial collection (T.C.A. Title 62, Chapter 20). C2C Resources holds a Tennessee Collection Service Agency license, license 495.
Tennessee's exemptions cover businesses collecting their own accounts, attorneys, banks and a handful of others. An agency collecting business debts for other companies is not on the list, so a commercial agency working Tennessee accounts needs the license. Licensed agencies keep a trust account for client funds and post a surety bond, and the Department publishes who holds a current license on its public lookup.
On top of its Tennessee license, C2C Resources is certified by the Commercial Law League of America, endorsed by the International Association of Commercial Collectors, and carries a $500,000 surety bond.
This page describes Tennessee law in general terms. It is not legal advice, statutes change, and your situation may turn on facts a web page cannot know. Talk to your attorney before acting.
Where do Tennessee commercial claims get filed, and what happens after judgment?
General Sessions Court hears civil claims up to $25,000, not counting costs, and serves as Tennessee's small claims court. Circuit and Chancery courts hear larger claims. After judgment, a creditor can garnish money a bank or other third party holds for the debtor.
Tennessee has no court called small claims. General Sessions does that job, with simpler procedure than the higher courts. Its $25,000 ceiling has not moved: a 2026 bill to raise it to $50,000 (House Bill 982 and Senate Bill 572) was taken off notice in committee and did not become law. Watch for guides that report it as passed.
Garnishment is where most Tennessee judgments against a business get paid. The writ reaches the balance in the debtor's bank account as of the night it is served, and the garnishee has 10 days to answer (Tennessee Rule of Civil Procedure 69.05). Since 2025, a bank served with a garnishment must work out within two business days whether it holds the debtor's money, and place a hold on it (Public Chapter 174, amending T.C.A. 26-2-203). Wage exemptions protect an individual's paycheck, not a company's operating account.
A judgment can also become a lien on the debtor's real estate by registering a certified copy with the county register of deeds (Rule 69.07). The judgment itself lasts ten years and can be extended for ten more by motion (Rule 69.04), and the extension order must be registered too to keep the lien alive.
Tennessee mechanic's lien deadlines for suppliers and contractors
A supplier or subcontractor without a contract with the owner must serve a notice of nonpayment within 90 days of the last day of each month it furnished work or materials, serve and record a notice of lien within 90 days after the project is completed or abandoned, and sue within 90 days of serving that notice of lien.
Tennessee has 17,751 private construction establishments (Bureau of Labor Statistics, first quarter 2026), and for the suppliers and subcontractors who work with them, Title 66, Chapter 11 is unforgiving. Tennessee calls them remote contractors, and the deadlines run like this:
- 90 days, every month: serve a notice of nonpayment on the owner and the prime contractor within 90 days of the last day of each month in which you furnished and were not paid (T.C.A. 66-11-145). Skip it and you lose the lien for that month, except for retainage. This is not a single deadline from your last delivery; it rolls month by month.
- 90 days after completion: serve the notice of lien on the owner and record it no later than 90 days after the improvement is completed or abandoned (T.C.A. 66-11-112 and 66-11-115).
- 90 days after notice: a remote contractor's lien lasts 90 days from service of the notice of lien, so the enforcement suit has to be filed inside that window (T.C.A. 66-11-115 and 66-11-126).
- Notice of completion: if the owner records one, claims are cut off quickly, 30 days after recording on most commercial work. A remote contractor who served a notice of nonpayment must be served a copy and gets 30 days from that service (T.C.A. 66-11-143).
- Owner occupied homes: on an owner occupied one to four unit residence, only the prime contractor has a lien (T.C.A. 66-11-146). Suppliers to residential jobs should plan on collecting from the contractor, not the property.
The practical rule: calendar the notice of nonpayment at the end of every month you deliver unpaid, and do not wait for the job to finish.
Placing a Tennessee account with C2C Resources
Tennessee's economy runs on businesses that extend trade credit. The state's private sector has about 223,601 establishments, including 17,751 in construction, 13,897 in wholesale trade, 10,092 in manufacturing and 6,534 in transportation and warehousing (Bureau of Labor Statistics, first quarter 2026).
We collect from businesses across the state, from Nashville and Memphis to Knoxville and Chattanooga. Here is how we work a Tennessee file:
- Best claim to place: from $1,000 to hundreds of thousands of dollars, under 120 days past due. We take accounts of any size, and we would rather see them before they age. Most accounts reach us closer to 180 days, which is late enough to cost recovery.
- What we do first: verify the balance and the paperwork, then see how we approach it. Learn more.
- If it needs legal: our Legal Forwarding Edge program moves the file to a vetted commercial attorney, with our interests still lined up with yours.
- What you can expect from us: we handle roughly 25,000 claims a year, we have been collecting in all 50 states since 2002, and clients typically recover 20 to 30 percent more with us than with the agency they used before.
- What we will not tell you: a made up recovery percentage. Recovery depends on your credit policy, your in house process, how old the account is and your industry. A suspiciously high published rate usually means the agency is making the number up.
Not ready to place anything? Read how third party B2B collection works, what Legal Forwarding Edge does when a file needs a lawyer, or how First Party AR keeps accounts from aging this far in the first place.
Frequently asked questions
Do you have an office in Tennessee?
Our headquarters is in Atlanta, Georgia, and we have a second office in Metairie, Louisiana. Those two offices work every account, including Tennessee accounts.
Is C2C Resources licensed to collect in Tennessee?
Yes. C2C Resources holds a Tennessee Collection Service Agency license from the Department of Commerce and Insurance, license 495.
Can you collect if I never had a signed contract?
Usually yes. Most commercial debt is proved with purchase orders, invoices, delivery records, emails and a payment history. If you sold goods, Tennessee gives you four years from the breach under T.C.A. 47-2-725, signed contract or not.
How old can a Tennessee account be before it is too late?
Legally, four years for a sale of goods and six for a written services contract. Practically, much sooner. Accounts placed at 90 to 120 days recover far more than accounts placed at a year.
Do you collect consumer or retail debt in Tennessee?
No. We are commercial only, business to business.
I want to keep this customer. Will you damage the relationship?
That is the normal situation, not the exception. Our collectors average 26 years in commercial collection and work the account professionally under our name. Plenty of our clients keep selling to a customer after we recover the balance.
What does it cost to place a Tennessee account?
We work on contingency, so there is no recovery fee unless we collect. The rate depends on the size and age of the claim. Ask us for a quote on your specific file and we will give you a straight answer.
Have a past due Tennessee account?
Send us the details and a commercial collection specialist will tell you whether it is worth pursuing, and how we would work it.